TRP Eurox Magnesium cantilever brakes

Beautiful bicycle bling that work beautifully for elite crossers with deep pockets

Weight:

106g

Contact:

www.upgradebikes.co.uk

TRP Eurox Magnesium cantilever brakes

810Shaun Audane

TRP Eurox Magnesium Cantilevers

With their shapely magnesium arms and titanium hardware TRP’s Euro X are either the last word in lightweight bicycle jewellery or gratuitous extravagance-especially since the carbon variants work out £40 cheaper. Mere mortals with mid-range mounts are better served by aluminium patterns and pad upgrades but weight conscious, elite cross racers with deep pockets and a passion for exotica won’t be disappointed.

Wide, shapely profiles offer acres of mud clearance while oozing retro cool, although the gold titanium finishing kit suffers from marmite syndrome-something you’ll either love or hate. To my eye it compliments bold, simple colour schemes handsomely. With this in mind, remember to give threaded components a liberal slather of ti-prep to safeguard against chemical seizures.

Supplied with both alloy/ceramic and carbon specific, the Euro X pads cater for all rim types while being independently adjustable for precise alignment and toe-in. Unique, integral barrel adjusters are a real boon allowing minute cable refinements on the fly or when shouldering the bike- vital in the heat of competition when needing to counter the effects of clogging or taming slight buckles. With superior mechanical advantage, heavily laden bikes stop on the proverbial sixpence, which is great news for muddy cross meets where gloop can add surprising weight to otherwise svelte machines.

However, heel clearance proved problematic on smaller compact framesets - and if you were tempted to go all 'ultimate' on your compact tourer you might find the TRPs have a tendency to foul larger panniers, which to some degree limits their horizons beyond the out and out cross bikes, but as that's pretty much all they were designed for - we're not going to hold that against them.

Paired with both softly sprung mid-range STI and traditional road lever, bridle path braking at the absolute last is rewarded with confidence inspiring modulation and feel. Only an accidental pairing with the linear- pull specific levers threatened to spit me over the bars at the slightest touch and pad wear seems generally good despite foul weather; mud and generous helpings of grit, I have reports of carbon variants proving unkind to rims.

Verdict

Beautiful bicycle bling that works beautifully for elite crossers with deep pockets

road.cc test report

Make and model: TRP Eurox Magnesium cantilever brakes

Size tested: n/a

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

These are the magnesium version of the firm's wide armed cross specific cantilever (also available in alloy and carbon) Aimed squarely at elite racers, it is the lightest (and most expensive) of the Eurox family.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Painted magnesium arms complete with titanium mounting hardware. Some very unique features include an integral barrel adjuster, allowing brakes to be fettled on the fly and without tools. The kit comes complete with two sets of pads (alloy/ceramic and carbon specific)

Rate the product for quality of construction:

8/10

Rate the product for performance:

9/10

Rate the product for durability:

7/10

Rate the product for weight, if applicable:

9/10

106g

Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:

8/10

Rate the product for value:

5/10

Hard to put a score on this I suspect that price is not going to play a big part in the calculations of the people who would want these

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

There's no doubting the beauty and phenomenal stopping prowess easily capable of stopping a heavily laden tourer in its tracks, let alone a lightweight crosser. Set up is easier than many of the breed. Modulation and feel are excellent regardless of lever type. Enormous Mud clearance is a definite plus, although on the flip side, they don't make the transition to touring and mtb duties thanks to compromised luggage and heel clearance.

Shaun Audane is a freelance writer/product tester with over twenty-eight years riding experience, the last twelve (120,000 miles) spent putting bikes and kit through their paces for a variety of publications. Previous generations of his family worked at manufacturing's sharp end, thus Shaun can weld, has a sound understanding of frame building practice and a preference for steel or titanium framesets.
Citing Richard Ballantine and an Au pair as his earliest cycling influences, he is presently writing a cycling book with particular focus upon women, families and disabled audiences (Having been a registered care manager and coached children at Herne Hill Velodrome in earlier careers)

road.cc reviews

Here's how we roll at road.cc:

Every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a real insight into whether it works or not. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective, and we strive to ensure that all opinions expressed are backed up by facts, but reviews are always a reviewer's informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores. It reflects both a product's function and value. Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad. Here's what they mean: